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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

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Book ' ' 




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C'OFM^KiHT DEPOSIT. 



The World Above 






Of this first edition of The World 
Above there have been printed five 
hundred copies on Van Gelder 
hand-made paper and twenty- 
five copies on Japan vellum, of 
which this is number (^ f 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Rticeived 

JAN 24 1906 

Copyright Entry 

LASS ^ XXc, No, 

COPY B. 



Copyright, 1905, by 
The Blue Skv Press 



THE WORLD ABOVE. 

The scene is laid in a shadowy and mystic place 
known to the dwellers there as The Darker Realm. It has 
been built and burrowed from time immemorial far down 
underneath some great, beautiful, sunny, human metro- 
polis, called The World Above, but of this light-crowned 
city those who inhabit the subterranean retreats of The 
Darker Realm know but little, of its happy days and 
doings they can but dream. 

The galleries of The Darker Realm are like an in- 
terminable network — one could so easily be lost there ! 
Some parts are new and are built up smoothly with pol- 
ished stone; other parts are old — so old and irregular that 
it seems as if they must have been set there many, many 
centuries ago. Perhaps the place has been an ancient 
mine where dim-eyed people sought the turquoise gem 
for their devil-altars; perhaps it was once a human town 
over which volcanic ashes and desert sands have fallen 
and drifted for many a long century. Unexhumed and 
rediscovered, it lies there, and the dwellers in The World 
Above find use for the water-way conduits that thread its 
interminable passages. 

There are two persons in the story: Jean, a young 
man, a workman in The Darker Realm, and AngeHca, a 
young maiden, daughter of another workman in the same. 



Scene I. 

(A place in The Darker Realm. The background 
forms a cave-like enclosure or gallery with an arched roof 
composed of massive blocks of fitted stone. At the cen- 
ter of the enclosure is a tall well-sweep with other gigantic 
structures. Chains and tubes range along the walls and 
ceiling. At the right there is an opening into one of the 
larger conduits, and over the opening a trap-door is held 
up diagonally by a long dusty rope with a pulley attach- 
ing it to the wall above. From above this opening dangles 
a cord that floats out tensely, showing that a strong cur- 
rent of air is coming down through the conduit and is 
flowing out into the gallery. Near the front a foot-bridge 
crosses a gulley in the floor of the passage; one can see 
the gHnt of the w^ater flowing below. At the left, high up 
on the wall, juts forth a crane and on this hangs an iron 
lantern from which a sickly light is given forth. This is 
almost the only center of light in the place, though it is 
possible to see that there is some kind of a lamp beyond 
the half-open door of a windowless hut which is dimly 
perceived at the back of the gallery. Also, above the 
foot-bridge, there is a flue in the ceiling, and through this 
flows downward a faint, pale Hght, almost imperceptible, 
like the dimmest twilight. At the back of the gallery, 
arched openings on either side lead to passages of im- 
penetrable blackness. 

From the door of the hut a young girl emerges and 
passes across the gallery. She hums a strain of the hymn 
Varina, and as she comes along, she touches the wall 
lightly with her white finger tips and walks with a hesi- 
tating step as if the floor were slippery, or as if she were 
accustomed to find her way more by the sense of touch 
than by that of sight. She is a slender and delicate look- 
ing girl, and the pupils of her eyes are large and dark as 
if they were trying to gather all the light they could. Her 
garment is a poor, dull-colored thing, and her face and 
her two hands are the only spots of pure white in the whole 
picture. She comes forward slowly, touching the wall 
sensitively and sings, as she approaches, in a voice like a 
soft, sweet flute, and yet more pathetic than any words 
can describe.) 






J I J: J^ J 



^ 



Angelica — "There is a land of pure de - light," — 

(She comes forward to the bridge and looks down 
into the water.) 



^ 



^ 



^3 



Angelica — "Where saints immortal reign;" 

(She looks up toward the flue; the dim radiance 
there falls like a halo upon her head. She whispers:) 

Angelica — "Saints immortal 1" I wonder what "saints 
immortal" may bel 

(She looks around wonderingly and then looks down 
at her hand and turns a ring upon her finger, and then 
holds it up to the pale light from above, and smiles as she 
sings the second line of the stanza.) 



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Angelica — "Infinite day excludes the night, and pleasures banish pain." 

(Then she turns and takes in long breaths of the air 
from the fresh current, lifting her shoulders as if she en- 
joyed the mere pleasure of breathing.) 



p^l J I ;• / J ^ 



3 



Angelica — "There ev - er - last - ing spring a - bides," 

(She rests her face upon her hand meditatively.) 
Angelica — This air — itmust be the "everlasting spring" 
that mother sings about, it is so sweet 1 — for when I ask 
mother what "spring" is, she says it is where the air is 
fresh and sweet. Ah, yesl I would rather be out here, 
rather than in the close room, since mother is so sad and 
will not talk with me. Here the air comes rushing down 
the conduit and pours out into the gallery and fills me 
with such joy that I can scarcely breathe enough of it! 
I breathe and breathe it inl But — (she stops, listen- 
ing, and holds her hand to her heart) surely, surely that 
is Jean's step ! It comes nearer ! It turns down the Branch 
of BHnd Alleys. It is, it isl Jeanl Jean! (Then with 
an effort to gain composure of tone — ) Why, Jean, is that 



10 



you? (A boyish-looking fellow comes forward; he is 
dressed in workman's clothes and has all the marks of 
sordid labor upon his frame. His body is muscular but 
his complexion shows the pallor that suggests the cellar- 
grown plant. His eyes glow, however, with happy ex- 
pectancy as he moves swiftly toward Angelica and takes 
her hands in his.) 

Jean — Angelica! Do not pretend you did not hear 
my step; I saw you listening. I could tell from the very 
Court of Miracles what you were thinking of if I saw only 
the bend of your head 1 But look you ! I am here 1 Jean ! 
It is Jean! 

Angelica — I know. (She turns and seems to make 
up her mind to throw all ruse aside; with a gesture of 
welcome she cries:) Ah, I thought I was never to see you 
again ! 

Jean — I thought so, too. I have wished to see you! 

Angelica — Why, then, were you so long? 

Jean — I was working with old Jacques over in the 
Old Freestone Branch beyond the Court of Miracles. 

Angelica — (She shudders.) The Old Freestone? O, 
why did you go there ? 

Jean — Some one must go, Angelica, and I was the 
youngest and strongest. If I had not gone, old Jacques 
would have had to as he was the only one that understood 
the buttressing of the ancient wall, and I wouldn't have 
had old Jacques made to go for worlds! 

Angelica — No indeed, old Jacques that saved your 
life and pulled you out of the Great River! 

Jean — Yes, dear old fellow! And it's dangerous 
over there. You know they made the walls of the Old 
Freestone Branch out of blocks of stone so large that 
when a break starts and they begin to fall, it is not safe 
to be working among them. 

Angelica — Yes, I know; Didon was lost there Ah, 
poor Didon! 

Jean — Yes, alas! But do not think of Didon; think 
of me ! I am here again ! I came to see you ! 

Angelica — But not for so long, for so long! And all 
the time I feared and wondered what I should do if you 
should fall from a bridge into the water, or should be 
caught beneath a break, or should have illness, or should 
get drawn into the quicksands. 

Jean — Ah, do not think of these things! Think 
only of the pleasant side! Think that we are together! 

U 



lica — But how can I think of this when I re- 
member that any moment you may be snatched away 
from me and I never see you again ! Do you not remem- 
ber how when a stone in the wall crumbled away and a 
rivulet burst into the new tunnel that the Triangle Branch 
men were working on, and you with them, how the rivu- 
let all in a moment swelled into a stream that rushed for- 
ward with a roar we could hear away here, and how it 
tore down walls and bridges and air flues in its course, 
and how you nearly got caught in it? You barely es- 
caped, Jean! 

Jean — Yes, I know it, Angelica. 

Angelica — And ah, if you should fall beneath a break, 
or get caught in a quicksand, if you should leave us quite 
alone, mother and me 1 Wild terror comes over me every 
time I try to think it out. 

Jean — Do not try to think it out, dear Angelica. Put 
your hand on my arm. Feel how strong it is! I shall 
work for you. 

Angelica — Now that father is gone, I may need to 
have you work for me, 

Jea7i — Your father gone? Where? 

Angelica — Three days now he has not come home. 

Jean — But he will surely come. 

Angelica — Yes, if he be not caught in a break! 

Jean — Well, if he comes not, I shall still be here, 
strong and loving. 

Angelica — (Timidly) Loving? 

Jean — Yes, loving; why not? Have I not always 
been loving? From the first day I ever came into the 
Great River Branch and pushed my tool-cart along with 
old Jacques and saw you sitting there on the doorstep of 
your hut, saw you there but a minute when your mother 
called you in because she heard strange voices outside and 
the jingle of tools, — from that day have I not loved you 
and thought of you as my most sacred dream ? 

Angelica — (Clasping her hands) Have you, oh have 
you? Have I been to you like a dream? 

Jean — And did you not think of me at all? Do you 
you not remember that day too? 

Angelica — I do not remember that day, I think, but 
I remember other days. I remember when we played to- 
gether down where the Branch of Bhnd Alleys juts into 
the Great River Gallery. I had caught a little hzard and 
kept it to play with and called it Prince, and along came 

12 



Didon, heedless, cruel Didon, and he gave my poor 
Prince one knock on the head. What is a lizard? he 
cried, and you — do you remember what you did ? 

Jean — Well, what I did was to give Didon a good 
thrashing. I beat him well and he deserved it. 

Angelica — (Sighing) Ah, poor Didon! 

Jean — Do not say "poor Didon." 

Angelica — But alas, he suffered and lost his life in 
the War, and all because of my Prince, my poor little 
dead lizard. Yes, that was really the cause of the war, 
wasn't it? The Blind Alley men taking up my side and 
the Triangle men and the Great River men on his, and 
then the fight going on and taking in other Branches be- 
sides. 

Jean — So we got tired of the lizard-play! 

Angelica — We did indeed. 

Jean — Yet it was good play while it lasted, wasn't it ? 

Angelica — Yes, it was good play while it lasted, but 
I have noticed that the things we play with get so after 
awhile that we do not care to play with them anymore. 
Have you noticed that? 

Jean — No, I never did; but then, you are the great 
noticer. 

Angelica — But I think you are! 

Jean — Well, out of our lizard-play came the war, 
which went on 

Angelica — Until the Break! 

Jean — Yes, the Great Break when the wall fell in 
and poor Didon was crushed under the toppled mason- 
work. 

Angelica — That made all our wars seem useless and 
small, didn't it ? But do you think that the great pressure 
of the crowd of boys and men from the Branch of Blind 
Alleys that took up your side and fought with Didon's 
crew, made the gallery wall cave in? Or did it just cave 
in of itself? 

Jean — How can I tell? It may have been either, or 
both. The walls are always falling in the Old Freestone 
galleries. 

Angelica — It is this never knowing the causes of 
things that worries me! Now when the water began to 
flow right in to the top of the Main Cross Tunnel and all the 
men were so frightened by that, as if the whole Darker 
Realm were to come to an end, why were they so much 
more frightened than usual? And I overheard them 

13 



talking about a diver going down from above. Now if 
a diver was to go down from above to stop the hole, 
where was he to dive from? 

Jean — O, the explanation of all that is easy enough. 
I think there must have been a river above there and a 
bridge. 

Angelica — A bridge? (in astonishment) a bridge 
above there ? A bridge like this one I am standing on ? 
Are there bridges above us ? Is there a world above with 
bridges and galleries and air-conduits and lizards and 
lizard-wars and — and breaks ? 

Jean — (Laughing) O no! I am certain that if 
there were a world above, there wouldn't be any wars 
and breaks in it! 

Angelica — I am sure I don't see how you know that. 
You can't imagine anything else for the people to do but 
roll tool-cars, clean pipes, and repair breaks, can you? 

Jean — I can't imagine it, no; but I am sure if there 
were a world above it would not be so sad and dark as this. 

Angelica — Dark? What does that mean? 
l£jean — Isn't this The Darker Realm? 

Angelica — Oh! I see! And yet I am not sure that I 
do see! 

Jean — Why, dark is everything that isn't light, 
everything that isn't lamps and cressets, everything that 
isn't your face, everything that isn't you! If there'd 
been a world above, you'd have been in it, not here! 

Angelica — (With enthusiasm) Ah, I wish I had! 

Jean — (In a surly voice) I don't. 

Angelica — Why not? 

Jean — Because I want you here — here with me! 

Angelica — Oh, yes, that! — but if we both could go 
to The World Above? 

Jean — Don't talk such nonsense; of course there 
isn't any such thing, and what's the use of bothering our 
heads with puzzling and wondering? 

Angelica — Yes, that's just it, wondering! I can't 
help wondering. There's something in my head that goes 
on wondering and wondering. My wondering-machine 
will keep going, and I cannot stop it. It makes me very 
unhappy and yet I do not wholly want it to stand still. 
Now, I can't help wondering what these fearful things 
mean, these breaks. Do you never wonder? 

Jean — Wonder? No. I wonder at nothing. I don't 
see anything to wonder at. 

14 



Angelica — Now, I wonder all the time. I want to 
know the meanings of things. What makes this water 
flow, what makes the lamp burn, who made this cloth of 
my dress, these walls and foot-paths, the cressets and wind- 
lasses and charcoal-burners. I asked mother if she made 
the cloth and she said "no." I said, "who did?" She said, 
"how should I know ?" I said, "where did it come from ?" 
She said, " Father brought it." "Where did he get it," I said. 
She said, "I didn't ask him," — and not a word more would 
she say. Where do my dresses come from, this cloth-stuff, 
do you know ? Do they not come from The World Above ? 

Jean — Why, no. They just come from your mother. 
She sews them for you. And the stone in your precious 
ring, that Jacques calls an opal, do you know where it 
came from? 

Angelica — (Eagerly) From The World Above? 

Jean — (Very impatiently) Oh, no 1 / gave it to you. 
It came from me. I loved you and I gave it to you. 

Angelica — But where did you get it? 

Jean — I found it in the Court of Miracles at the edge 
of the Great Pool, of course, where we are always finding 
things. We never found anything that was not found 
there, of course, for that is the Great Place-of-Finding- 
Things. 

Angelica — Do you believe that? 

Jean Believe what? That this is the Great Place- 
of-Finding-Things ? Why, of course 1 How can you keep 
from beheving what you feel with your very own hands 
and hear with your own ears? When I took hold of the 
scoop something slipped over the handle and I felt a Uttle 
knob-like thing go between my fingers. I caught at it 
and cleaned away what was tangled around it and gave 
it to you. 

Angelica — And I washed it and washed it and washed 
it, and made it clean, quite clean, and lo, it was a ring 
just right for my finger, for my finger, finger, finger! 
(She flourishes her hand joyously with the ring upon it.) 

Jean — Let me see it again; let me take it and look at 
it. 

Angelica — Oh, you cannot take it! I cannot be 
without it one moment, I love it so. 

Jean — But let me, me only, look at it one moment. 
(He snatches at her hand and draws it to him and kisses 
it impulsively.) 

Angelica — I thought you wanted to look at the ring! 

15 



Jean — I forget the ring when I think of you, dearest 
AngeHca. Can't you forgive that? Can't you? Can't 
you? 

Angelica — I would try, perhaps; but now, look at it! 
look! (She holds up the ring to the lamp's light.) See 
the wonders in it? 

Jean — I see no wonders; it is just a little round drop 
of dull white set on a band of gold. 

^^ Angelica — Little round drop of dull white indeed! 
See there ! See there ! Do you not see a streak of some- 
thing, like the pain that now and then shoots down 
through one's shoulders? 

Jean — No, there is no streak in it. 

Angelica — But now, now, see it! Try it in this light, 
in this pale, pure light that shines down through the flue 
from above. 

Jean — Ah, yes, I do see it now; now that you hold it 
in the light of the flue, I see it; now, a darting of red! 

Angelica — Of red? What is red? 

Jean — O wonderful eyes! — Don't you know that red 
is a color? 

Angelica — A color? What is a color? 

Jean — Why, a color is — is, well, for instance, red; 
look at it! — that is a color. 

Angelica — But it changes. Is that, now — see! — is 
that a color too? Can you not catch the other dartings? 

Jean — Yes, I see; that is blue; yes, that is a color, 
too. Now I can see yellow, orange and purple; these 
are the colors; all the colors there are, are here. 

Angelica — How do you know, now, that they are all 
the colors there are? 

Jean — I know because these are all the colors I have 
ever seen, and of course, then, they are all there are. 

Angelica — But how did they come there? What put 
the dartings in there? What are they for? 

Jean — Come there ? What for ? What silly questions ! 
Why, this is an opal, and it is the nature of opals to have 
these colors in them and to dart about in this way. 

Angelica — And are these beautiful colors to be seen 
only in the opal? 

Jean — Of course, where else should one see them? 
Did you ever see them anywhere else, child? 

Angelica — No, I never did, but I thought perhaps 
you might, since you have traveled so far, so far beyond 
the Great Cloaca Branch and the Branch of Blind Alleys 

16 



and even beyond the Great Cross. (She holds the opal 
in the light and turns and turns it.) It seems to me that 
I dimly perceive other dartings than these you have 
named, although perhaps I am mistaken. But it is very 
beautiful and I love it. (A pause.) Well, well, it is all a 
mystery, I see I must have a new pair of eyes or a new 
sense of some kind to know all about this wonderful thing 
you call color. (Brightening) But I know I shall have 
them some day, else why did I get the opal and how was 
it that I found the shooting, pain-like rays in my opal? 
Jean, if I had made the world, I would have made it all 
opals! I wish I could make a world! O, but everything 
should be beautiful if I could make life ! 

Jean — (Patronizingly and coaxingly) Make life ? 
What do you mean by that? 

Angelica — Why, make life, make things and people! 
Oh, if I could but make things and people! 

Jean — I don't see what you could do with them when 
you made them. 

Angelica — Oh, I would have them live and laugh 
and have lights, lights, all they wanted of lights! 

Jean — But what for? 

Angelica — Oh, because I love people and I love 
lights. I could never have too many lights. Oh, how I 
love them! When I wake up from a long sleep and see 
that mother has set the lamp a-burning I could shout for 
joy. Then if I had lights enough, I know I would not 
have to bring my opal out to the bridge to make it throw 
forth all its dartings. If I could make a world, I would 
have things very different from this. 

Jean — Should I be there? 

Angelica — Oh, yes, you would be there but (with just 
a little touch of coquetry) I should not pay much atten- 
tion to you. (Seriously) I should be so busy looking 
around at all the beautiful opal-colored things. Now for 
myself I would have a skirt of red and a sacque of blue 
and the walls of my hut should be covered with red and 
purple all swaying and melting as in the ring, and I would 
have the shades that sweep from color to color, the softest 
for my ceiling and beneath my feet the richest and warm- 
est. Thus should my world have been, had I made the 
world ! 

Jean — Do not worry your mind with these visions 
and wonderings, dearest Angelica. You will become so ex- 
cited you will be ill, dear. 

17 



Angelica — Oh no, I shall not be ill, I shall be welll 
It makes me almost believe that there is such a world 
above when I think of how well I could be if I were in it. 
For, why did I have eyes that long for light, light, more 
light, if I was never to have more light? 

Jean — Dear Angelica ! (soothingly.) 

Angelica — No, no, do not speak against it! I know 
there is a world above. I know it. I feel it. O, let us 
go there ! Let us go up through this flue and find it ! 

Jean — Why, Angelica, if there had been such a thing, 
your mother would have told you and old Jacques would 
surely have known about it. 

Angelica — Then I shall ask mother, — and nowl For 
I feel that I cannot wait; I must know. I shall ask mother; 
I shall make her tell. 

Jean — And shall I go and ask old Jacques? 

Angelica — Do you do so, and come to tell me again. 
Come here in an hour, here to the Bridge. Good bye, 
Jean! Good bye! We must find The World Above! 

(Jean watches Angelica go into the hut and then 
passes slowly across the gallery and disappears in one of 
the Bhnd Alleys.) 



18 



Scene II. 

(Another part of the Darker Realm. The walls are 
of long blocks of stone set irregularly together; gigantic 
fungi grow in distorted protrusions from the interstices, 
and water drips from their out-reaching fantastic fingers. 
The blackness of darkness shows in portals opening on 
various passages. Some disused tool carts and heaps of 
debris are piled up at the side. A flaming torch in a 
cresset gives an irregular and eerie light like flashes of 
blue lightning. The tracks for tool carts pass along the 
floor of the tunnel. The sound of water flowing in some 
under-ground channel is heard. Jean and Angelica enter 
from opposite sides and meet.) 



19 



Angelica — O Jean, O Jean! What I have seen! 
What have I seen! 

Jean — What, what ? How came you here, AngeHca ? 

Angelica — I was impatient to see you and so I came 
to meet you and on the way — O, I saw, I saw — what 
do you think? 

Jean — I cannot guess. Here, come and rest your- 
self; sit here and do not tremble so. (He leads her to a 
seat on a broken bench.) 

Angelica — I saw — (clasping her hands in ecstacy) a 
saint immortal! 

Jean — Saint immortal, — what is that? 

Angelica — A saint immortal? Do you not know? 
Why, that is one of the happy beings that live in the world 
above! Mother sings about it, you know: "Where saints 
immortal reign," she sings. That's in the "land of pure 
delight." 

Jean — Dear Angelica! Never mind about that now. 
Come, rest awhile and get over this excitement. Let us 
talk about our childhood and the happy days we spent 
together playing around the well-sweep in the Blind 
Alleys and the games and that poor Prince and all the — 

Angelica — Jean, are you crazy? 

Jean — No, (laughing) but I think you are, talking 
about saints immortal and The World Above and all 
those impossible dreams of yours. 

Angelica — But now, listen! (She lays her hand on 
his arm.) As I was coming from our hut — have I told you 
what mother said ? and — 

Jean — Why, no, you have not yet. I think you were 
going to, but — tell me about your vision, if you want to, 
first. 

Angelica — And what did old Jacques say? I am 
sure he said exactly what mother did when I crowded her 
down to it, that there is — 

Jean — (Sadly) I couldn't find old Jacques. He 
may have gone off to your world above, for anything I 
know (sarcastically). 

Angelica — O Jean, do not be so hard of heart! Let 
me tell you! Do you know, I found mother singing that 
song she loves so to sing 

Jean — (Laughing) Well, what has that to do with 
the matter? 

Angelica — Why, it's all about The World Above, the 
song itself is about that. Listen! (She sings.) 

20 



"There is a land of pure delight, 
Where saints immortal reign. 
Infinite day excludes the night, 
And pleasures banish pain." 

And here it is about the ''spring." (Sings again). 

"There everlasting spring abides, 
And never-fading flowers; 
Death, Hke a narrow sea, divides 
This heavenly land from ours." 

Jean — It is a beautiful song, dear. 

Angelica — Yes, Jean, (she speaks most solemnly) 
Mother says there is a world above this, that there really 
is; and now, it may be old Jacques has gone there, and if 
he has, I am sure I am very glad, for up there everything 
is beautiful and colored with all the colors in this opal, 
and everybody is happy there. 

Jean — (Very sadly) Angelica, do you really believe 
all this ? 

Angelica — I did believe it before, and now I know it. 

Jean — And does it make you glad to believe it? 

Angelica — Yes (with a long ecstastic breathing); but 
if you beheved it, I should be all the more certain of it, 
and if the belief made you glad, it would make me all 
the more glad. 

Jean — But why, then, if your mother knew about 
this, did she not tell you before? Why did she not talk 
with you about it? 

Angelica — Ah, Jean, that was the first thing I said. 
I don't like to tell you what she answered. 

Jean — But tell me; for am I not the same as yourself? 

Angelica — She said she had not told me because — 
because — she was afraid I would fret to go there, and she 
did not want me to, she wanted me to be content to stay 
here with her. Besides, she said, it might make me blind 
to go there — I do not know why. But now father has 
gone; three days he has been gone; such a thing never hap- 
pened before, and mother fears he has gone to The World 
Above and will never come back. 

Jean — He will, of course, — unless — unless — a break 
in some blind alley has caught him! 

Angelica — Do not frighten me! That cannot be. I 
will not believe it. He has gone to The World Above 
and I am glad he has! 

21 



Jean — But now, Angelica, if there were a world 
above, how did we happen to be in The Darker Realm, 
instead of in that one ? We must have come from that 
world to this? 

Angelica — Oh! Think of that! (She clasps her 
hands in an ecstacy.) And do you remember ought 
about it, dear Jean? 

Jean — (Very sadly.) I only remember old Jacques. 

Angelica — I, at any rate, must have come from some 
world above, for I think I remember, or rather, I feel 
dimly a remembering like to a faint breathing as sweet 
as an — as an ''everlasting spring," Jean. (Angelica sits 
musing and Jean gazes upon her. A pause. Then he 
says, tenderly:) 

Jean — But why don't you tell me what it was you 
saw? 

Angelica — (Starting up again excitedly) O, words 
could not tell it ! Jean, heart of man could not dream of 
the wonder of it! 

Jean — But what was it ? What was it, to deserve all 
this? 

Angelica — I'll try to tell. As I came by the Little 
Cross of Miracles, I looked up through the flue and at the 
top I saw that there was an opening — an opening out, 
Jean! At first I could not look, it pierced and pricked 
my eyes like sharpest knives; but after a while, I had 
to look; and through the opening I saw a face, a face, 
Jean! — the face of a maiden like myself, with eyes looking 
down at me with looks of curiosity, and oh, Jean! — of love; 
and they shone like lamps! But her hair looked like the 
gold of my ring, and around her neck her dress was like 
the red dartings in the opal; and then, oh, she looked 
down with a gaze that turned from curiosity and love to 
sorrow and almost to horror! And then she moved back 
and went away! Yet, as she arose, I saw her form for 
one brief moment. Her movements were like the shadows 
of the light upon the water where it flows beneath the 
bridge by our hut in the Court of Blind Alleys. And all 
the colors of the opal were upon her and around her, and 
beyond her a most clear and shining blue, that dazzled 
and hurt my eyes so that I could not look upon it at all. 
And I saw a wall, not dark like these around here, but 
colored like the opal when it is asleep; and there were 
things like these (laying her hand on one of the outreach- 
ing fungi), only finer and all in masses, much more beau- 

22 



tiful and of a color like — but I cannot tell you what it was 
like; it was like nothing that we have here, but it was soft 
and comforting. I could have looked at it always, and 
never I am sure would I have had to rest my eyes for 
aching. (Turning suddenly to Jean) Do you not beheve 
it now? 

Jean — What, that this vision of yours was anything 
but a dream? 

Angelica — Yes. 

Jean — When you, dear dreamer, are always dreaming? 

Angelica — But what, then, was that beautiful crea- 
ture that I saw above the open trap? Was she not one 
of the ''saints immortal" mother sings about? 

Jean — What was it ? O, that was a vision, a some- 
thing that passed across your eye-balls, a sort of defect 
in your sight. 

Angelica — Ah, that will not do, you cannot explain 
it in that way, you cannot, you cannot ! 

Jean — Yes, this is how it is. Listen, dear! You 
know the shadows of the swinging lamp as they reflect on 
the water and then back on the glass above, make just 
such strange pictures. We have often watched them to- 
gether. Don't you remember, dear, once when — 

Angelica — But the trap was open and above I saw a 
sheet of jewel like my ring when I hold it up to the candle, 
and at the side I saw a wall but clearer and brighter than 
any wall in all The Darker Realm. It fairly glistened. 
Tell me, have you never seen such a vision in all your 
life? 

Jean — No, dear Angelica. 

Angelica — Nor ever seen any opening above that 
seemed to lead out into a place far brighter and more 
beautiful than this? 

Jean — No, dearest Angelica. 

Angelica — And did you never in all your travels from 
one part of The Darker Realm to another, did you never 
find a gallery that seemed to lead outward? 

Jean — No, dearest. 

Angelica — And did you never have a sort of feeling 
within that there must be a world above, to account for 
this in fact, — to account for ourselves if for no other reason ? 

Jean — What kind of a queer feeling might that be ? 

Angelica — Well, let me see, how can I tell you! 
Perhaps something like this. Have you ever lost your 
way? 

23 



Jean — Oh, no, that is, not many times — only once. 

Angelica — Well, what did you do? 

Jean — I considered. 

Angelica — You considered ? What good did that do ? 

Jean — Why, I considered where I was and that I 
came from the direction I came from, and so I turned and 
went back in that direction; and when I came to the point 
where I turned down, then I turned, and when I had gone 
as far as I did in coming, then I stopped again and con- 
sidered and decided which way to take, and so I simply 
decided at each step and pretty soon I was at the Great 
Cross and then I knew the way like my own fingers. 

Angelica — But I, when I was lost, stopped and list- 
ened, and in my soul I heard a Voice telling me to go this 
way to the right, and pretty soon to stop and turn off and 
so I turned off, and by and by I heard the voice again 
saying, "stop and turn;" and again, "now to the right" and 
then; "turn down the little way;" and then at last, "turn by 
the wheel;" and then I reached the Great Cross; and so 
I crept along, listening all the way, and at last reached 
our hut. 

Jean — Noav what might that Voice be ? 

Angelica — Jean, I do not know; but I have sometimes 
thought — don't laugh! — but I have sometimes thought 
the Voice came from this wonderful ring of mine; at any 
rate, when I do what the Voice says, the opal glows out so 
in the dark that I cannot keep from singing. 

Jean — But suppose you do not do what the Voice 
says? 

Angelica — Then the ring fades down as if it were 
disappointed and saddened. 

Jean — Angelica, you are a wonderful dreamer. But 
I don't really see much difference between your way and 
mine, only that what you call the Voice, I call considering. 
That's all the difference. 

Angelica — O no, but there is a great deal more differ- 
ence than just that, for I heard other voices too. Do you 
never hear voices ? 

Jean — No, never! Never heard a one. 

Angelica — Never heard your mother's voice? 

Jean — Mother's? No. I was too little when she 
disappeared anyway; I never knew anything about her. 

Angelica — Well, old Jacques, then; he has been like 
a mother to you. Do you never hear him when you are 
far away in the galleries and the light has gone out and 

24 



you don't know the way — do you never hear him calling, 
or rather not exactly calling, but sort o' pulling and draw- 
ing you in your soul as if you had to move toward him 
and reach him somehow? 

Jean — O, yes, once I remember — when I had to stay 
all night in the Triangle Branch. I had no cot to lie on 
but only just a bench and it was very hard and I wanted 
old Jacques very much and I seemed, I think I seemed to 
feel — what you call — a ''pulling" then. I was very cross 
I know and I — cried. 

Angelica — (Laughing) Of course, for you were a 
very little boy. It may be you felt a pulling then, but I 
think (hesitatingly) it was just homesickness, — just home- 
sickness, Jean. (With a long sigh) I am afraid I can't 
make you understand what I mean by pulling. But 
(more cheerfully) you'll understand sometime. 

Jean — When shall I understand, Angelica? 

Angelica — O, when we are in The World Above! 

Jean — (Laughing) Angelica, I see there is no use 
trying to teach you sense! 

Angelica — Jean, I see there is no use trying to make 
you see the truth! And as long as you laugh at me, of 
course I cannot tell you what I in my inmost soul have 
thought. 

Jean — Come then, (condescendingly,) I will not laugh, 
dear child! 

Angelica — (Pouting) No, that will not do, either! 

Jean — How, then ? 

Angelica — Why, lovingly — (she pauses) 

Jean — You did not mean to say that? Then say it 
now and mean it ! Dear one, why be so shy of me ? I 
love you and always have loved you; you know it! You 
love me, — it must be so. Let us enjoy it. What else 
have we worth talking of in all The Darker Realm? Come, 
tell me! 

Angelica — Yes, dear Jean, I am listening. 

Jean — And with all the loving that lives and burns 
in me, I will listen to everything you have in your heart. 
If it is your thought, I love it, no matter what it is. 

Angelica — Then listen, listen with the heart! (She 
seats herself more comfortably by his side and raising her 
forefinger to enforce what she says, begins.) When I have 
stood on the bridge in the Center of Blind Alleys and gazed 
down into the water that flows and flows so black and 
ceaselessly below, I have seen — 

25 



Jean — Well, what then ? Some of your visions, with 
robes of red and hair of gold color, and walls of opal? 

Angelica — There, now! You said you would listen 
believingly ! 

Jean — I will, I will! My heart is here. 

Angelica — But I want head, too. 

Jean — Teasingly grasping one ! You want too much. 

Angelica — With solemnity even this you must give, if 
you hear my story. I feel that you can not understand my 
story unless you give both ! 

Jean — Both, all, anything; they are yours, Angelica! 
Tell me about these visions upon the flowing water. 

Angelica — Shadows seemed to fall there, of all shapes 
and forms. 

Jean — Is that all? And was this puzzling to you? 
I can explain it all. Now, these shadows were, of course, 
the reflection from the cresset-light, that fell upon the 
water and then flew back again to your dear little eyes; 
that was all. Do you see, dear? 

Angelica — But that was not all. There was more of it ! 

Jean — What, then? 

Angelica — Once when I was standing and watching, 
there came a sudden change; the cresset-light went out! 
I looked and it was as black on the wall as the quicksand 
pond in the Court of Miracles. Then I looked down to 
the water again. The light from the flue came down a 
little less dimly than it did when the cresset was burning, 
and in a minute, dearest Jean, the self-same shadows be- 
gan to flicker and fall and pass like the faint images of 
many graceful beings moving very swiftly to and fro 
above. I turned as cold as any stone when I saw this! 
Aha, that vision you cannot explain! 

Jean — But, dear, I can. These were still reflections, 
the cresset reflections that had been, as it were, left over. 
They were tossed down to the moving water, from the 
water they were tossed up into the flue, and when the light 
in the cresset went out, these that were stored in the flue 
had still to fall. 

Angelica — But this went on and on; this kept going 
on! 

Jean — Then there were a great many left over to fall, 
a sort of accumulation of them. 

Angelica — That sounds well, and it may be so, yet 
it does not fully satisfy me. And there is something else ! 

Jean — More wonders? 



Angelica — Yes; listen with heart and head; you know 
you promised. 

Jean — I will keep my promise, dear love. 

Angelica — You hear this roar? 

Jean — Of course, the water in the Great River, you 
mean? 

Angelica — Yes, Jean. (She draws nearer and speaks 
very low) Jean, I have heard another roar! 

Jean — Then there I am with you. I have, too; in 
fact, I have heard many kinds of roars. The river has a 
very different sound from the Chain Tube and the Chain 
Tube from the conduit in the Rubble Corridor and each 
air-passage has a sound of its own. Of course you could 
not be expected to have learned this, but they are common 
facts known to all that study into the laws and systems 
of The Darker Realm in which we live. 

Angelica — Yes, I, too, have ears and I know all the 
tones and voices of all the conduits that pass through this 
part of The Darker Realm. But this roar that I mean is 
different from them all. It is as different as your voice is 
from mine. It is more dim and fine than any common 
roar; yet there are many, many tones mingled in it — oh, 
more than you could ever count! And they are different 
kinds of sounds, yet all blending into one. O, it stands 
alone, it is quite unlike any other sound in all our galleries. 
And when I stand on the bridge by the door of the air- 
conduit, and drink in the good air that makes me feel 
strong and that mother says I must breathe all I can of 
because what she calls "everlasting spring" abides in it, then 
it is I hear it. But I do not always hear it even there. 
It has times and seasons. Sometimes it twines in with 
the roar in the air-conduit and sometimes not. I can now 
almost tell when it will begin and when it will end. But, 
Jean, the strange thing about it is this: when I go away 
from the sound of the water in the Great River, this roar 
grows more clear; in fact, the farther I go, the more plainly 
I hear this strange spirit;like, tumultuous, sound. There- 
fore, it cannot be the rushing of the water or of the air 
that causes it. It is something quite distinct and unac- 
counted for by anything in our Realm. You can say 
nothing to this! 

Jean — (Sadly) Nothing, dear, except that I have 
not the fine sense that sees all this and therefore I cannot 
dream your dreams with you. But if you believe them 
and they make you happy, I am glad for you. 

27 



Angelica — But tell me, have you never seen one single 
vision? Nor heard the soft-sounding roar from above? 
Nor caught a glimpse of the shadows in the dim radiance 
of the flue? 

Jean — No, no, none of all these things. 

Angelica — And when you have looked down from 
the bridge into the aqueduct and have seen the water flow- 
ing, flowing, have you not asked yourself whence it comes, 
and whither it is going? And also why it flows, — ever 
flows? And have you not longed to go on with it and fol- 
low it in its current until you found out where it was going 
to? Following the way the water flows, would not that 
lead us to some explanation of what it all means? 

Jean — But what is the use, beloved Angelica, of our 
bothering our heads with these questions when it is plainly 
impossible to find any answers whatever? 

Angelica — I cannot help it. I must bother my head! 
O, have you never in all your travels seen anything, any- 
thing, like an opening outward? 

Jean — No, love; yet that I may not be quite outdone 
by you in telling about wonders, I will tell you of some- 
thing that happened to me once, in which I dare say you, 
if it had happened to you, might have found a dream of 
The World Above. 

Angelica — Ah, tell me, tell me! 

Jean — Do not expect too much. It was only this. 
I remember that once when I was down on what they call 
the Grand Canal, I there saw something that I at any rate 
could not understand. I saw a dim Hght in the center 
of the tunnel and as I drew nearer it grew greater and 
greater until it shone so that it seemed to shoot sharp 
knives into my eyes. I could not bear the pain and so I 
turned back. You, I suppose, would have rushed for- 
ward and gazed upon it and spoiled your eyesight forever 
and never have been able to see anything in our Darker 
Realm again. 

Angelica — (Excitedly) It was an opening. It was, 
it was! Lead me there, take me there! O take me there 
at once! 

Jean — It is not for a moment to be thought of ! Not 
for you, dear. It is far away, and the new breaks are all 
down on that side, and you are not strong enough to at- 
tempt it. And you could not look upon it; you know 
your mother said so. She told you it would make you 
Mind. 

28 



Angelica — Ah, I do not carel Let me go! I am 
strong; let me gol I will risk the eyes! 

Jean — If you bid me I will go and see whether I can 
find it again; but you — 

Angelica — Jean, you do not know how strong I am. 
I have done as mother bade me; I have breathed in the 
breath of the everlasting spring, and I am strong enough 
to go. Mother would let me — I would make her let me go ! 
And we would then come and tell her! Ah, let me go and 
see at least if that gallery is still open and if — in case we 
wished to — we could go by that way to The World Above. 
Come, come, dear Jean, will you come ? (She draws 
Jean to his feet and pulls him excitedly on.) 

Jean — But, AngeHca — 

Angelica — Come, come! In what direction is it? 
Only tell me that ! 

Jean — I have forgotten exactly where it was, but it 
was down the Grand Canal and beyond the Great Cross; 
it is Ukely that it was some strange affliction of my eyes 
that seized me; only that, dear AngeHca! 

Angelica — No, no; we must try to find it. We must 
at least go there and have one look outward. (With de- 
termination) Jean, if you do not come with we, I shall 
go alone, and I shall wander till I find. 

Jean — No, no, dear! Never think of doing such a 
thing ! 

Angelica — I shall! I am going now! (She flies 
along the passage, and then stops and gazes back upon 
Jean. She looks hke a spirit shining out in the darkness). 
Are you coming? I am going on! 

Jean — Then go on, Angelica; I will come with you. 
I am coming, I am coming! (Both figures pass under the 
arch of masonry fringed with its grotesque fungi, and dis- 
appear into the black darkness). 



29 



Scene III. 

(A spacious gallery in The Darker Realm, where a 
gateway opens out and lets in a flood of dazzling light. 
Graceful vines entwine the arch and move quietly in the 
wind, while beyond the opening spreads the blue and 
glittering surface of a river. Many gay-colored river- 
craft ply up and down in the distance, and the varied 
sounds of city life send a pleasant murmur to the ear. 
Beyond all are banks of green, church spires, and a strip 
of sky that is ripening in color toward sunset. Beneath 
the arch at the right, steps of stone masonry lead down 
into the waters and disappear in the transparent depths; a 
stone foot-path leads from the left along the side of the 
gallery, and the walls are trellised here and there with 
little trailing fingers of moss. Jean and Angelica enter 
from the dark gallery and follow along the embanked 
stone foot-path. Angelica moves as though her physical 
strength were exhausted while Jean supports her form 
and seems to urge her forward.) 



31 



Jean — Dear Angelica, come but a little farther! 

Angelica — I can go no farther; I am breathless; I 
am faint. 

Jean — Ah, yes, bear up, dear; lean on me. 

Angelica — My eyes, my eyes! 

Jean — Close your eyes for awhile; I will lead you. 
Then when they are rested, you can open them and look 
through the gateway. Now we have come so far and 
suffered so much, you must not lose the sight you have 
so longed to see. 

Angelica — The stones are more slimy, more slippery, 
at every step. 

Jean — But let me lead you; take my hand. 

Angelica — (She reaches out uncertainly and instead 
of touching his hand, touches the masonry of stone.) The 
wall ! (A shudder passes over her.) 

Jean — Here, dear! (He clasps her arm and draws her 
hand away from the wall.) 

Angelica — My eyes have prickles in them; I can 
scarcely see. When I look at that great red eye before 
us yonder, a thousand points jut out and fly to me and hit 
me in my eyes. 

Jean — But that great red eye must be the opening, 
dear. That is where we reach The World Above. 

Angelica — Then I do not want to reach The World 
Above, for nothing but pain comes to me from that great 
red eye. 

Jean — But I feel certain that we must go through that 
opening and when we get there I am sure that we shall 
scarcely know that we are coming into light. My eyes 
are quite used to it now, at least so that they do not prickle 
any more, and I can make out some beautiful things. 

Angelica — What? Tell me what, for I shall never 
see it myself. 

Jean — Yes, you will. Believe me, it is only a little 
further, only a little more weariness and pain and we shall 
be there. When I saw what you were willing to go through 
to reach this gateway, what suffering to endure, what 
dangers to risk, I began to believe with you, and now we 
have our reward, for here we are with the gate right at 
hand. 

Angelica — But I am too tired! 

Jean — Then let us rest here a little before we take 
the last steps, and let us get our eyes used to the opaline 
lights. And see, we have much more light now; I can see 

32 



you better, and you could see me better if you would but 
take your hand down from your eyes and look at me. 
(She slowly looks around and bends her eyes upon him.) 

Angelica — I cannot see you at all. Oh, where are 
you? Have you left me alone? 

Jean — No, dear, no! Here I am, by your side. 

Angelica — Am I turned blind? 

Jean O, no, it was because your eyes had rested for 
a moment on the light of the gateway and when you 
turned to me you could not bear the contrast of the dark- 
ness. But look and seel In this new light can you not 
see me better? 

Angelica — I — see — you — better. (She slowly draws 
back with a frightened look in her eyes) I never saw you 
look like that! 

Jean — I never saw you look so beautiful, Angelica. 

Angelica — I never saw you look so — like this. O, 
who is this? Who are you? (almost crying) Where is 
my Jean? 

Jean — Why, what is the matter? I am Jean! Put 
your hand on my face and you will find that I am Jean, 
just the same as always. (She lays her delicate hand on 
his brow and draws it down over his eyes and lips, then 
draws it away with a long sigh and closes her eyes; he 
snatches her hand back and kisses it passionately.) Ah, 
Aho is it now? (breathlessly.) Is it Jean, or is it not 
Jean? 

Angelica — It is Jean that kissed me. It is not Jean 
that my eyes rest on. Your face has a thousand things in 
it that I never saw before. There are lines and wrinkles 
and furrows; there are shadows and shrinkings; there are 
marks and scars; there are pains and miseries. I did not 
know you were so sad and burdened and broken-hearted 
and miserable, and — 

Jean — O what, O what? 

Angelica — Is there shame? Are you ashamed of 
something? Have you done something wicked, some 
dreadful, dreadful wickedness? 

Jean — O, when you look at me, Angelica, I am full of 
shame. I am crushed to the stones with shame. Do not 
look at me so, I cannot bear it. (He covers his face with 
his hands). 

Angelica — But, yes, I must look at you; I must know 
this face, sad and furrowed as it is. Take away your 
hands; let me see your eyes! 

33 



Jean — Then see, and I will tell you why your look 
pains me to the heart and why I cannot lift my eyes to 
yours. When I was — 

Angelica — Hush! (She speaks imperatively and puts 
her hand over his mouth but he pulls it away.) 

Jean — But why? You wanted to know, and now I 
want to tell you; I will tell you every bad thing I ever did! 

Angelica — No, no, no, no! I will not hear! I will 
stop my ears. I do not want to hear. Not a word, not 
a word! 

Jean — But it is the truth and I want you to know the 
truth, all the truth. 

Angelica — I know the truth, I see the truth in your 
face, all of the truth that I want to know, I see it in the 
lines and shadows beneath your eyes. 

Jean — But if I do not tell you more, you will find it 
out yourself and then you will not love me! 

Angelica — Telling or not telling will not change my 
love. I have loved you — 

Jean — Have loved me ! — 

Angelica — I have begun to love you. Love for you 
has begun in my heart, and what is begun must go on. 
You are you! I see it in the light from the great eye 
of The World Above, and if you are you, what matters 
anything you or all the people in The World Above could 
tell me? You are you, that is enough! 

Jean — But is it better to know that I am I, though 
my face or even the whole of me changes, is it better to 
know this than to know anything else in the world ? Is it 
better? Is it? O let me hear you say! 

Angelica — (She laughs a soft laugh of contentment;) 
It is so! It is better! 

Jean — You are you, and I am I, and we are together, 
together, together! (She throws her arms around his 
neck and lets her head rest against his. He draws her 
close to his side. Then they rest for a long time in quiet 
and finally she turns and looks again toward the light at 
the opening of the gallery.) 

Angelica — (Whispering.) The Hght! I cannot look 
upon it, but I know it is the light! 

Jean — (Softly). Yes, dear, it is the light from The 
World Above, shining in on us as we sit here together. 

Angelica — (Whispering.) Together! Shall we be 
always together? 

34 



Jean — Always, dear, so long as you are you and I 
am II 

Angelica — And shall you be always you? 

Jean — Always, dear. I cannot be otherwise than 
myself, can I? (Laughing a little.) 

Angelica — Of course not. I knew that always. I 
knew that from the beginning. 

Jean — No, you didn't; you never knew it till I proved 
it to you, proved it by the light from The World Above 
that shone upon our faces. 

Angelica — (Laughing joyously.) I cannot tell you 
anything because you always prove things out, can I? 

Jean — (Laughing in his turn.) I cannot tell you 
anything because you always know without any proving, 
don't you? But are you ready now to try to reach the 
gateway? Shall I lift you, dear? Shall we go on? 

Angelica — But I am so tired. It was such a long way 
we came. I would fain stay here always with your arms 
around me. I do not care if we never reach The World 
Above ! 

Jean — But if we go on, you will still have me with you 
and have The World Above besides! 

Angelica — And the light! 

Jean — Yes, and the light ! You know how you loved 
that and how you have longed for it. 

Angelica — Yet when I look at it I shrink back — if 
that great eye that shoots out terrors toward me and gives 
me more pain than joy be really the light I have longed for ! 
Ah, Mother! She said the light of The World Above 
would blind my eyes. Dear Mother! I want her! 

Jean — But if we should try to go back, we could not 
find our way to her now. We must go on. We will wait 
till our eyes are a little stronger and can bear the Hght; for 
it is the light ! It must be, since we have traced it by every 
trap we have passed. Every one was larger than the 
one before, you know, but it was always the same 
thing, always something we knew by our eyes. This one 
before us is only a Hght larger and clearer than any of the 
others; only that, a larger Hght than a candle, larger than 
a lantern, larger than any of the traps that let down Hght 
from above into The Darker Realm. 

Angelica — I am sure it is as you say, dear Jean, and 
perhaps when we have passed through the gateway and 
are really in the Hght, in the Hght itself, with Hght, Hght, 
Hght, pouring around us and bathing us on every side — 

35 



Jean — Yes, perhaps when we are in the very midst 
of it, it won't hurt our eyes so much. 

Angelica — Beautiful — most beautiful! And perhaps 
we shall be a part of it, one with it, and responding to it. 
Then, if that were so, it could not hurt us but we should 
revel in it, as I being a part of you, dear, take joy in you. 
Could that be so, do you think? 

Jean — When you say it, dearest, I am sure of it, for 
you yourself are light, you shine so ! (embracing her.) 
May I lift you now and shall we go on? (Jean supports 
Angelica on his arm and tenderly leads her on. The two 
approach the steps where they lead down into the water.) 

Angelica — Must we go through all this, do you think, 
before we can be in The World Above? 

Jean — I believe so, dearest, yes. Are you not rested 
a little ? 

Angelica — O yes, I feel much stronger! And you 
are with me! That is enough! Hark! Listen, Jean! 

Jean — Yes, dearest. 

Angelica — I hear voices, happy voices! Ah, beauti- 
ful voices! Look, Jean, and tell what it is! 

Jean — I see many people; they are coming in boats. 
They come very near, and they look this way most 
pleasantly. 

Angelica — (Whispering) Are they the "saints im- 
mortal" ? 

Jean — I think they must be, dearest Angelica. 

Angelica — Oh, Jean, dearest, dearest Jean! (A 
pause.) Stay with me, Jean! (She puts one arm about 
Jean's neck and rests her face down, covering her eyes 
from the hght.) 

Jean — Angelica, love, cling to me and I will buoy 
you and lead you. (They touch their feet to the water's 
edge.) 

Angelica — The water! (She says it breathlessly.) 
Must we step in? 

Jean — But look onward, onward, beloved! (They 
slowly move down the steps into the water. Jean clings 
to the stone buttress and supports Angelica.) 

Angelica — The water is deeper. (She shrinks back 

.terrified.) I feel a something drawing my feet, drawing 

me away from you. O, where are you, Jean? (She 

reaches out her arms and moves them blindly. Jean, in 

the utmost tenderness, brings them to his neck.) 



Jean — Here I am, dear! If you cannot see as they 
see in the Hght of The World Above, you can still know 
that it is I, even by the self-same way you knew me in The 
Darker Realm. Put your hand on my face, if the light 
blinds your eyes, and then you will know. 

(She lays her hand lightly on his brow. Then with a 
long sigh of bliss:) 

Angelica — Ahl (A pause.) Yes, it is still you! I 
am still with you! (A pause. Jean sustains her strongly 
and tenderly as they move on into deeper water. Then 
their voices are heard from a little distance.) Are you 
there, dear Jean? 

Jean — Here I am, Angelica, my beloved ! 

(The current flows strongly in and softly draws the 
two lovers onward. They pass out beneath the stone 
archway into the full, bright day. As they move from 
beneath the sharply-cut outline of the shadow and emerge 
into the glow of the level sunset rays, a halo of light seems 
to enwreathe the heads of youth and maiden, and their 
faces shine as if transfigured. The joyous welcoming 
voices come nearer — one can almost understand what 
they say! Jean and Angelica float together, buoyed 
safely by the current, out into the river. Some pleasure- 
barges pass very near, trailing garlands of flowers; the 
laughter of the rowers is heard, then the sweet sound dies 
along the rippling surface of the water. A fleet messenger- 
boat has put forth from the opposite shore and is seen to 
thread its way among the myriad river-craft; it approaches; 
it stops for a moment in mid-stream. The sun sets; 
floods of glory stream out over the city. Evening bells 
are heard chiming forth the strains of a triumphant hymn: 



^A^ J I J: JJjl^- ^'/^A^-n } 



37 



